Nigeria’s Zinox Group acquires Naspers’-backed e-commerce firm Konga to take on Jumia across Africa

Nigeria’s Zinox Group has acquired Naspers’-backed e-commerce firm Konga to take on Jumia across Africa.

Launched in July 2012, Konga.com has always wanted to become the engine of commerce and trade in Africa offering a platform for merchants to sell Phones, Computers, Clothing, Shoes, Home Appliances, Books, healthcare, Baby Products, personal care and much more.

Friends at Zinox Group said, “Our ambition is to up the tempo by revolutionizing e-commerce on the African continent, with Konga at the fore-front of this initiative. In addition to positioning the business on a path of profitability in the short term, our long term plans are focused around seeing Konga well established in other African capitals.”

Zinox is also expected to use Konga as a channel to drive its original devices such as laptops and phones to more markets in Africa and work with both online and offline merchants as pick-up and drop-off points. These is huge for Zinox as Konga already has shoppers and merchants using the platform around the clock.

Konga will also get the new capital injection it needed to take on Jumia across Africa especially in Key markets like Kenya, Ghana, North Africa among others.

The deal, already approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will see Zinox restore its former glory as the pioneer of the eCommerce industry twelve years ago with BuyRightAfrica.com, a platform which was too early for the market and died quickly.

The acquisition also gives Zinox, KOS-Express, Konga’s logistics business and KongaPay, its payment platform. KongaPay is licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria and has over 100,000 subscribers.

Zinox Group is said to have been in discussions with Naspers and AB Kinnevik for several months. Konga has raised over $25m from both investors.